Book Review: The Wedding Date

"The Wedding Date" by Jasmine Guillory

Publication Date- January 30, 2018

Genre-Adult, Contemporary, Romance

Paperback Edition-311 Pages

Rating-4/5 Lily Pads

Would I Recommend It? Yes

No Spoilers!!

Introduction

Hey there, I'm finally back with a review! Today I am reviewing "The Wedding Date". This is her debut novel and I enjoyed it. When I found out about this book, I knew I had to read it. This book was right up my alley. The Fake-Dating Trope is my favoirte Trope in romance books/movies. I wanted to read a book that's similar to "The Hating Game" by Sally Thorne, which is one of my favorite books. This was the perfect Valentine's Day read. Let's get on to the review. 

Goodreads Summary

A groomsman and his last-minute guest are about to discover if a fake date can go the distance in a fun and flirty debut novel.

Agreeing to go to a wedding with a guy she gets stuck with in an elevator is something Alexa Monroe wouldn't normally do. But there's something about Drew Nichols that's too hard to resist.

On the eve of his ex's wedding festivities, Drew is minus a plus one. Until a power outage strands him with the perfect candidate for a fake girlfriend...

After Alexa and Drew have more fun than they ever thought possible, Drew has to fly back to Los Angeles and his job as a pediatric surgeon, and Alexa heads home to Berkeley, where she's the mayor's chief of staff. Too bad they can't stop thinking about the other... 

They're just two high-powered professionals on a collision course toward the long distance dating disaster of the century--or closing the gap between what they think they need and what they truly want...

Plot-5/5

The plot is what sold me to read this book. I love books with fake-dating in it, so I had to read this book. I love that Alexa and Drew met in an elevator and I love that the book starts and ends with them in the elevator. I thought that was really cool!

Writing-4/5

This is Jasmine's first novel and I liked her writing. It's not the best writing I've read but her style is pretty good. The only thing I didn't like about the writing is she told the story more instead of showing us everything that happens. For example, whenever Alexa and Drew are together, she skips over most of their interactions and just shows them either eating or having sex. It gets really repetitive because that's pretty much all they do when their together. It kind of annoyed me honestly. 

Pacing-4/5

The pacing is fine. I was never bored while reading this book, but I wasn't motivated to pick it up in my free time. 

Cover-5/5

Even though I didn't love this book I love the cover so much! It's gorgeous, that's all I have to say!

Characters-4/5

I think the main reason why I didn't love this book is because of the characters. I liked them, but I didn't love them.I didn't think the character development was that great, to be honest.  I'll explain why below.

First let's talk about the main protagonist, Alexa. She is a kind, short black woman that works in politics. She's kind of insecure about her body and her looks because she's always surrounded by white women. I really liked her character. She's very nice and kind. She was fine. 

I don't know how I feel about Drew. I liked him but I didn't love him. He's a good guy but he kind of bothered me. He goes out with girls but won't commit and he has some anger problems throughout the book. He sort of just annoyed me at times and yeah, I just wasn't a huge fan of him. 

As for the romance, I liked it. Their relationship wasn't developed that well though. Like I said before their relationship was mostly based on sex and food. I felt like they didn't do much. They talked but the author didn't let us see that a lot. They also had some communication problems. I'll admit that the romance was realistic though. 

I loved the side characters, Maddie and Carlos. They were great friends to Alexa and Drew. 

Ending-5/5

I loved the ending of this book. It's a very cute, happy ending. I love happy endings!

Overall Thoughts

Overall, I liked this book but didn't love it. I've read better romance books but I'm glad I read this one. The author has a companion book coming out called "The Proposal" and I can't wait to read that book! If you love romance books, you should read this one. I recommend this book. That was my review. I'm sorry that this review isn't very good, I honestly didn't have much to say about this book. Thank you so much for reading. Have a great day and happy reading!

Update

Hey guys. It's been a while since I last posted. I've still been reading but I haven't been in the mood to blog. I'm gonna give you a quick update on some books I've read recently. 

So I recently finished the "Falling Kingdoms" series by Morgan Rhodes. I read "Frozen Tides" which was amazing! It's one of my favorite books in the series. The next book I read was "Crystal Storm" the fifth book. I also loved that book. And the most recent book I read was "Immortal Reign" which is the last book in the series. I absolutely loved it so much!! It was an amazing conclusion. It gave me all the feels, especially at the end. This is a new favorite series of mine and I''m so sad that it's over. So after reading "Immortal Reign", it put me in a huge book hangover. It took me a while to except the fact that the series is over. I just couldn't get over the book for a couple weeks so I stopped reading. Then I picked up a new book I just bought on vacation which is "The Wedding Date" by Jasmine Guillory. I just finished it last night. I'm going to write a review for it right after I post this, so stay tuned for a full review for that book :) Thank you for reading and have a great day!!

Book Review: Zenith

"Zenith" by Sasha Alsberg & Lindsay Cummings(The Androma Saga #1)

Publication Date-January 16, 2018

Genre-Young Adult, Science Fiction, Romance

Hardcover Edition-534 Pages

Rating-5/5 Lily Pads

Would I Recommend It? Yes!!

No Spoilers!!

Introduction

Hello! I feel like it's been a while since I last posted. I've been reading but "Zenith" took me a long time to read because it's a huge book. I'm back and I'm here to review this wonderful book. When I first found out that Sasha and Lindsay were writing a book together, I was so excited! I love both of them so much! I love their YouTube videos. So I pre-ordered the book and read it right when it came out. And I was not disappointed! I don't understand why "Zenith" has so many negative reviews. This book was amazing! Let's get on to why I loved this book. 

Goodreads Summary

Most know Androma Racella as the Bloody Baroness, a powerful mercenary whose reign of terror stretches across the Mirabel Galaxy. To those aboard her glass starship, Marauder, however, she's just Andi, their friend and fearless leader.
But when a routine mission goes awry, the Marauder's all-girl crew is tested as they find themselves in a treacherous situation and at the mercy of a sadistic bounty hunter from Andi's past.
Meanwhile, across the galaxy, a ruthless ruler waits in the shadows of the planet Xen Ptera, biding her time to exact revenge for the destruction of her people. The pieces of her deadly plan are about to fall into place, unleashing a plot that will tear Mirabel in two.
Andi and her crew embark on a dangerous, soul-testing journey that could restore order to their shipor just as easily start a war that will devour worlds. As the Marauder hurtles toward the unknown, and Mirabel hangs in the balance, the only certainty is that in a galaxy run on lies and illusion, no one can be trusted.

Plot-5/5

I actually went into the book blind, not really knowing anything about the book. I knew it was set in space with a group of Space Pirates, but that's it. I didn't wanna know too much about the book. I just wanted to read it to support Sasha and Lindsay. I absolutely loved the plot though. It was so cool! I don't normally read sci-fi that much, so I thought "Zenith" was very unique and it's something I've never read before. 

Setting-5/5

This book is set in Space, how could I not love it? Anything that's set in Space is automatically cool to me. 

Writing-5/5

I read some reviews for this book and a lot of people said the writing was so bad. I personally loved the writing! I couldn't tell which chapters the girls wrote, but I thought their writing styles were very beautiful. The book has flowery, pretty writing at times. Also, this book is in multiple pov's which I loved because I love books written in other pov's especially the guy's pov. Overall, I loved their writing styles, and I really wanna read Lindsay's other books since I like her writing. 

Pacing-5/5

The pacing was great! This book had so much action, it was non-stop action throughout the whole book. It was awesome, and I was never bored. 

Cover-5/5

I think the cover is really beautiful. That's all I have to say. 

Characters-5/5

The best part of this book was definitely the characters. The character development was amazing! I loved all the characters!

Some of the characters reminded me of characters in other YA books but that didn't bother me. I thought it was kind of girl. I'll explain about the characters separately. 

First of all I loved the main protagonist, Andi. She was a great character. She's so kick butt, but she's also a good person. She's your typical, strong, smart girl but I loved her. She actually reminded me a lot of Aelin from the "Throne of Glass" series. I thought I was reading about her. 

Next let's talk about Dex. He is supposed to be Andi's enemy, but he's actually her ex-boyfriend. I loved him! He was actually a really good guy and I truly believe he's not evil. I was shipping him and Andi together throughout the whole book. I don't know why the characters reminded me of Sarah J. Maas's characters, but they did. Dex reminded me of Rhysand from the "ACOTAR" series. I don't know why, their personalities were really similar. I love Rhys so I'm okay with that, ha ha. I really liked the romance in this book.  They had a past instead of just meeting for the first time in the book. I thought that was really cool and different and even though they were together in the past, I wanted them to get back together. This book isn't romance heavy, it's more plot-based though. 

The next character I want to discuss is Valen. I didn't know what to think of him at first. I liked him, because Andi was sort of friends with him and he seemed nice. But then a plot twist happened and a theory I had came true. After that I didn't know how I really felt about him. I'm not going to spoil you but I want you to know that, he reminded me a lot of Maven from the "Red Queen" series. His personality was kind of similar to Maven. 

I loved Andi's group of friends. They were all kick butt and awesome girls. I loved Lira, Breck and Gilly. Their whole group is squad goals, I would love to be in their group with Andi. 

Ending-4.5

I thought the ending was confusing and it wasn't a great ending. I know there's a sequel so I was able to excuse the ending. I'm mad that I have to wait a whole year now for the next book, but it wasn't a really bad cliffhanger. 

Overall Thoughts

Overall, I loved this book so much!! It was such a cool, fun book. I enjoyed reading it even though it was very long and took me a long time to read. I can't wait to read the sequel. I need to see the world and characters more. I honestly would love a prequel about Andi training at the academy. I would love to see more into her past. If I haven't sold you yet to read this book then read it right now! Go out and buy a copy! It's so worth it and you won't regret it. I know "Zenith" has so many mixed reviews but please give it a try and don't listen to the bad reviews. I'm glad I gave this book a chance because I loved it and I know you will love it too. Also please read this book and support Sasha and Lindsay. They really deserve it!

So that was my long review. Thank you so much for reading. I will have more posts coming soon so stay tuned. Have a great day and happy reading!:)